Cemex to Use Coolbrook’s Roto Dynamic Heater to Reduce CO2 Emissions

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(Credit: Cemex)

Cemex, a building materials company, is the first company to announce it aims to use Coolbrook’s Roto Dynamic Heater to significantly reduce CO2 emissions from cement production. This comes in addition to Coolbrook’s existing partnerships with ABB and Shell. The Roto Dynamic Heater (RDH) technology uses electrification to remove the need for the burning of fossil fuels in the highest-emitting industrial processes. Powered by electricity from renewable sources, the RDH is the only process heating technology in the world that can cut up to 30% of industrial CO2 emissions and over 7% of global CO2 emissions annually, the company says.

Industrial CO2 emissions originate primarily from three main sectors: petrochemicals and chemicals, iron and steel, and cement production. The RDH, powered by electricity from renewable sources, can achieve process temperatures of up to around 1700 ºC with high energy efficiency and can thereby be used in processes that were impossible to electrify up until now. RDH is the only electric technology able to reach temperature levels required in highest-emitting industrial sectors such as petrochemicals and chemicals, iron and steel and cement, according to Coolbrook. Due to its compact size, the RDH can also be retro-fitted to existing facilities and thereby significantly accelerate the much needed CO2 emission reduction investments.

The technology has been in development for over a decade and marks the second major technology developed by Coolbrook after its Roto Dynamic Reactor (RDR), which can be used to electrify the steam cracking process in the petrochemical industry. 

Roberto Ponguta, Cemex VP of global operations for technical and energy said, "The electrification of the production process is an important step towards fully decarbonizing our cement operations. We are constantly looking for the best technologies and relationships to meet our Net Zero CO2 target. Our cooperation with Coolbrook will support us in achieving this ambition.”

Cemex has also recently successfully tested a process that converts flue gasses emitted by the cement kiln into carbon nanomaterials, thereby transforming “bad” carbon into “good” carbon. It has also helped finance a carbon dioxide-embedded cement and concrete additive. 

Environment + Energy Leader